Lima: Days 1-3

The first week of my round-the-world trip was spent in Lima, the capital of Peru. Set half way up the country on the Pacific coast, the city was established by Francisco Pizarro, the conquistador of Peru, in 1535, to provide a port from which to control the area. For most of the duration of Spanish rule, Lima was one of the most important cities on the continent and today, a third of the population of Peru (which is incidentally much smaller than the pre-conquest population) live in the capital.

Now we've got the facts over with, time for my own experiences. My first two days were spent with my friend Lucy, whose presence in Peru acted as the initial catalyst for my decision to go. We enjoyed eploring the cafés and restaurants of Miraflores, the touristic heart of the city, where our hostel, one of the Flying Dog chain, was based. Situated in front of Parque Kennedy, the area was pleasantly green, and attracted children to the playground outside our window at all hours up to about midnight. Having just stepped off the 'plane from wintery Britain, the climate seemed hot and dusty to me at first, and I took my time in acclimatising myself to it.

On our first whole day, we caught a taxi into Lima Centro to see the historic heart of the city. The taxi ride was fairly typical of my experience of Peruvian driving. The ambition of most Peruvian taxi drivers appears to occupy that space of road that is either uncomfortably close to the vehicle in front, or happens to coincide with the same space of road that another driver has his eye on. How this usually manifests itself is overtaking without indication and on either side to gain a small lead on the car in front. If a car in front happens to be travelling slower than oneself, applying the brakes seems to be a last resort. Far better just to drive closer to the offending vehicle so that its driver knows you wish them to travel faster, or just go round it, using the "nature abhors a vacuum" school of thought. Of course, liberal use of the horn and gesticulations improves communication between drivers. Suffice it to say that a taxi ride in Peru is never boring.

We asked to be dropped outside the cathedral in the Plaza Mayor, the city's central square and focal point. (In the centre of the Plaza once stood an equestrian statue of Pizarro, which was apparently later moved into a relatively obscure corner of the square by the city authorities at the request of the clergy, who considered the orientation of the horse offensive, since its rear end faced the cathedral). The highlight of our day was undoubtedly the guided tour around the 16th-century San Fransisco Monastery. Apart from the beautifully crafted materials used in its construction, many of which had been imported from Spain, and the impressive library containing thousands of antique books, the monastery also boasted catacombs in which were openly stored the remains of members of the monastic order throughout the centuries. (The catacombs, however, didn't benefit from the systematic storage methods employed during the relocation of the remains of Paris's dead into its catacombs in the 18th century - a sight worth seeing!)

The next day, we checked out the Museo Larco, named after the archeologist who discovered a large portion of its contents, and from whose private collection its exhibits were drawn. The museum is well laid-out, and puts pottery from the different geographical areas of Peru over the ages into context. There were two noteworthy differences between the Larco and any other pottery museum. Firstly, in most museums, you only get to see the proportion of the collection which is currently on display, with no idea about what might be stored away out of sight. Here, on the other hand, I had just finished going round the galleries, thinking to myself, "wow! this stuff must be really rare," when I went into the store room and saw rooms of glass cases from floor to ceiling with thousands of similar examples. The other reason to visit the Museo Larco is its collection of erotic pottery. This provides the studnet of anthopology with a fascinating insight into the sexuality of pre-Columbian Peruvians, and provided me and Lucy with a giggle or two.

Photos (from top to bottom): View from Flying Dog Hostel over Parque Kennedy; Central fountain in Plaza Mayor; San Francisco Church. For more photos, check out my page on Flickr.com